Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has promoted eleven lawyers to its partnership, effective from 1 May 2023.
"These talented lawyers have demonstrated their commitment and leadership, by providing exceptional support to our clients," said Eifion Morris, chief executive, Stephenson Harwood.
"We have ambitious plans to grow our business, ensuring we provide the commercially-focused advice our clients expect, across the full life-cycle of their business needs. That growth is focused on five key sectors – decarbonisation, life sciences, private capital and funds, technology and transportation and trade. I'm pleased that so many of this cohort align with those areas.
"It's also really pleasing to be welcoming newly promoted partners from across our network, in Dubai, London, Paris and Singapore. Accelerating the expansion of the work of our international offices is a strategic priority for the business, ensuring we provide the commercially focused advice our clients expect, in the locations they need. We've already been bolstering our numbers internationally, through a sustained campaign of attracting lateral partner hires. Around half of our lateral hires since the start of 2021 have been based outside of London."
The firm's new partners:
Ngowari Adikibi has been named a partner in the firm's corporate group. Based in Paris, she acts for management companies and GPs, as well as institutional investors, in relation to international funds creation and cross-border corporate and private equity transactions. Ngowari has significant emerging markets experience working in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, as well as in relation to advising funds investing in Europe and Africa.
Saif Almobideen has been named a partner in the firm's marine and international trade group. Based in Dubai, Saif is a bilingual civil-law qualified lawyer who has considerable experience handling complex cross-border disputes before civil-law Courts within the Middle East region. He has a special focus on matters relating to shipping, insurance, crisis management, commodities and trade finance, and enforcement of foreign judgements and arbitration awards.
Emily Aryeetey has been named a partner in the firm's employment, pensions, and private wealth group. Based in Dubai, and qualified in England & Wales, Emily has a cross-border and multidisciplinary employment practice. She advises clients in relation to such things as whistleblowing investigations and disputes in the UAE courts, company acquisitions, bonuses, workplace savings and other benefits and incentives, and employee data matters.
Alexander Chadwick has been named a partner in the firm's real estate and projects group. Based in London, he has experience in all areas of commercial real estate, advising clients on acquisitions, disposals, asset management, funding and development. He acts for a variety of clients, from institutional investors and major property companies, to corporate occupiers and hotel and leisure operators.
Ezio Dal Maso has been named a partner in the firm's finance group. Based in Paris – where he leads the office's superyacht offering – he specialises in non-contentious work with particular emphasis on legal issues pertinent to financing, ownership structuring and registration of superyachts, commercial vessels, cruise ships and private jets.
Chris Edwards-Earl has been named a partner in the firm's employment, pensions and private wealth group. Based in London, he specialises in helping clients to resolve contentious issues concerning pension schemes and funds. He acts for clients such as trustees and employers, representative beneficiaries, and advisors. Chris is particularly experienced in pursuing and defending professional negligence claims, and advising clients in regulatory and moral hazard investigations, international litigation, funding disputes, and risk management.
Priya Grigoriadis has been named a partner in the firm's fraud and asset recovery team. Priya has worked on some of the most high profile fraud cases to come before the English Courts. She has significant experience of large-scale, complex fraud and asset recovery cases, including obtaining and defending freezing orders, disclosure orders and search orders. Most of her cases are international often involving parallel litigation in jurisdictions such as the BVI, Cayman Islands, Southeast Asia and the UAE.
Alexandre Koenig has been named a partner in the firm's restructuring and insolvency (R&I) team. He advises domestic and international clients on all aspects of corporate difficulties, including business restructurings and takeovers of a business, and complex litigation arising therefrom. He has particular experience in the aviation, technology, telecommunications, leisure, energy, and retail sectors. Based in Paris, Alexandre heads the firm’s French R&I practice.
Cathal Leigh-Doyle has been named a partner in the firm's marine and international trade group. Based in London, he specialises in energy litigation and international arbitration, particularly in connection to decarbonisation strategies, offshore wind and hydrogen projects. He also has experience in the technology, retail and finance sector disputes. He routinely assists clients on non-contentious matters, such as negotiating contracts and advising clients on high value international projects. Cathal is qualified in England & Wales, New York and Ireland.
Chris Manning has been named a partner in the firm's private equity team. Based in London, he specialises in transactions for companies, management teams and institutional investors, including advising on MBOs, MBI’s, bolt-on acquisitions, investments and exits. Chris has a broad range of experience across several sectors, with particular experience in technology and healthcare; he is a member of the firm's technology sector core team.
Jeffrey Tanner has been named a partner in the firm's finance group. Based in Singapore, he specialises in asset finance, structured debt (covering limited recourse, ECA, multi-tranche, private equity and lease finance structures) and projects across the maritime, offshore and energy sectors. He also coordinates large-scale, international, multi-practice group transactions spanning corporate M&A, sale and purchase, joint ventures, project development and restructurings.